Shell's Mars platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Photo credit: Royal Dutch Shell
New York,(Reuters) – A damaged oil pipeline component that disrupted output at several offshore U.S. Gulf of Mexico platforms was repaired late Friday, a Louisiana official said, with producers moving to reactivate some of the halted production.
A failed flange connecting two onshore pipelines operated by Shell Plc SHEL.L in Louisiana leaked an estimated two barrels of oil. The oil, which spilled onto an area covered with gravel, has been removed, said Chett Chiasson, executive director of the Greater Lafourche Port Commission, and the flange had been repaired by Friday evening, he said.
The spill halted operation of two pipelines that bring oil from several production facilities off the Louisiana coast, curtailing about 600,000 barrels per day of output from Shell, Chevron Corp CVX.N and Equinor EQNR.OL, according to two people familiar with offshore operations.
On Friday evening, the Amberjack and Mars pipelines that were stopped by the leak were back online and returning to normal service, after crews completed the repairs at the Fourchon booster station, Shell spokesperson Cindy Babski said.
Shell is also in the process of ramping up production at its three platforms that deliver Mars sour crude, an oil grade popular with refiners in the United States and Asia, Babski added.
Chevron, which had three production facilities shut by the leak, said it is ramping up production at its Jack/St. Malo, Tahiti and Big Foot platforms. Equinor’s Titan platform was also disrupted.
Mars crude oil prices had initially strengthened to about a 50-cent discount to U.S. crude oil futures CLc1 on news of the leak on Thursday, but eased to trade at a midpoint of a $1.40 discount on Friday as the outage appeared short-lived.
Crude oil futures prices slipped by about 2%, also on expectations that supply disruptions caused by pipeline outages would be short-lived.
International benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1 fell $1.45, or 1.5%, to settle at $98.15 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 closed down $2.25, or 2.4%, at $92.09 a barrel. [O/R]
(Additional reporting by Stephanie Kelly and Shivam Patel; Editing by Mark Porter, Mike Harrison, Barbara Lewis, Richard Chang and Marguerita Choy)
Join the 84,736 members that receive our newsletter.
Have a news tip? Let us know.
By Angel Adegbesan (Bloomberg) — Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. may resume its long-stalled efforts to build the first offshore wind project in the US Great Lakes after the Ohio Supreme Court rejected a...
By Arathy Somasekhar and Laila Kearney HOUSTON, Aug 11 (Reuters) – U.S. offshore oil producers Shell, Chevron and Equinor on Thursday halted operations at facilities pumping hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day,...
A unified command responding to an oil spill in Louisiana’s Terrebonne Bay says overflights show there is no more recoverable oil. The source of the discharge—a collapsed tank platform—was secured...
Get the latest gCaptain articles and breaking news
Get the latest gCaptain articles and breaking news
The Leader in Maritime and Offshore News
For general inquiries and to contact us, please email: [email protected]
To submit a story idea or contact our editors, please email: [email protected]
Enter your email and get some awesome stuff every week